^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS American Folklife Center The Library of Congress Fall 1995 Volume XVII, Number 4 ISSN 0149-6840 Catalog Card No. 77-649628 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The American Folklife Center was created in 1976 by the U.S. Congress to "preserve and present American folklife" through programs of research, documentation, archival preservation, reference service, live performance, exhibition, publication, and training. The Center incorporates the Archive of Folk Culture, which was established in the Music Division of the Library of Congress in 1928 and is now one of the largest collections of ethnographic material from the United States and around the world. Administration Alan Jabbour, Director Doris Craig, Administrative Assistant Mary Gainey, Clerk Camila Bryce-Laporte, Program Coordinator Acquisitions Joseph C. Hickerson, Head Processing Stephanie A. Hall, Archivist Coordinator Catherine Hiebert Kerst, Archivist Programs Peter T. Bartis, Folklife Specialist Mary Hufford, Folklife Specialist David A. Taylor, Folklife Specialist Publications James Hardin, Editor Public Events Theadocia Austen, Coordinator Reference Judith A. Gray, Folklife Specialist Jennifer A. Cutting, Reference Specialist Administrative Office Tel: 202 707-6590 Fax: 202 707-2076 Reference Service Tel: 202 707-5510 Federal Cylinder Project Tel: 202 707-1740 Board of Trustees Juris Ubans, Chair, Maine Robert Malir Jr., Vice-chair, Kansas Nina Archabal, Minnesota Lindy Boggs, Louisiana; Washington, D.C. Carolyn Hecker, Maine William L. Kinney Jr., South Carolina Judith McCulloh, Illinois Ada E. Deer, Wisconsin, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Department of Interior Joseph D. Duffey, West Virginia, Director of the United States Information Agency Madeleine M. Kunin, Vermont, Deputy Secretary of Education Shirley S. Sagawa, Virginia, a Managing Director of the Corporation for National and Community Service Ex Officio Members James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress I. Michael Heyman, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Jane Alexander, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts Sheldon Hackney, Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities Alan Jabbour, Director, American Folklife Center FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS James Hardin, Editor David A. Taylor, Editorial Advisor John Biggs, Library of Congress Graphics Unit, Designer Folklife Center News publishes articles on the programs and activities of the American Folklife Center, as well as other articles on traditional expressive culture. It is available free of charge from the Library of Congress, American Folklife Center, Washington, D.C. 20540-8100. _Folklife Center News_ does not publish announcements from other institutions or reviews of books from publishers other than the Library of Congress. Readers who would like to comment on Center activities or newsletter articles may address their remarks to the editor. Telephone and Online Information Resources American Folklife Center publications (including _Folklife Center News_), a calendar of events, collection guides, general information, and connections to a selection of other Internet services related to folklife are available on the Internet via the LC MARVEL Gopher Server and the LC Web World Wide Web Server. LC MARVEL is available through your local Gopher server. Or use your Gopher Client Software to connect to marvel.loc.gov. From the main menu, choose "Research and Reference," then "Reading Rooms," then "American Folklife Center." LC Web is available through your local World Wide Web service. The Center's home page can be accessed from the Library's main menu. The direct URL for the Center's home page is: http://lcweb.loc.gov/folklife Folkline, an information service providing timely information on the field of folklore and folklife, including training and professional opportunities and news items of national interest, is available through both the above Internet servers and by telephone. For the telephone service (available around the clock, except during the hours of 9 A.M. until noon each Monday, when it is updated), dial: 202 707-2000. EDITOR'S NOTES Parsons Fund Committee Solicits Applications The Fund Committee for the Gerald E. and Corrine L. Parsons Fund for Ethnography at the Library of Congress invites applications for a grant of up to one thousand dollars to be made from the fund in 1996. The Committee is composed of the professional staff of the American Folklife Center. The purpose of the fund is to make the collections of primary ethnographic materials housed anywhere at the Library of Congress available to the needs and uses of those in the private sector (employees of public educational institutions are eligible but not employees of agencies of federal, state, and local governments). Grants may be made either to individuals or to organizations in support of specific projects. Projects may lead to publication in media of all types, both commercial and non-commercial; underwrite new works of art, music, or fiction; involve academic research; contribute to the theoretical development of archival science; explore practical possibilities for processing the Library's ethnographic collections; develop new means of providing reference service; support student work; experiment with conservation techniques; and support ethnographic field research leading to new library acquisitions. For its first grant, the committee would especially like to hear of projects on subjects that were of particular interest to former reference librarian Gerald E. Parsons Jr., the creator of the fund: waterfowling, railbirding, and other outdoor traditions; folklife of the Mid-Atlantic region; and organizing and using multi-format ethnographic materials. Applicants should submit a two-to-three-page narrative describing their proposed project and its potential products or audiences, and should provide a budget and time-frame. Applications should include a resume or statement of previous experience and the names, addresses, and phone numbers of three references who are qualified to speak about the applicant's professional work. Send applications to Parsons Fund Committee, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington D.C. 20540-8100, by February 1, 1996. For questions, call or write Judith Gray at the American Folklife Center (202) 707-1740; FAX (202) 707-2076. Paradise Valley, Nevada A new book by former American Folklife Center staffer Howard Wright Marshall, _Paradise Valley, Nevada: The People and Buildings of an American Place_ (The University of Arizona Press, 1995) derives from a 1978 Folklife Center field project. The project resulted in an exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution (and accompanying publication) entitled Buckaroos in Paradise (1980) and led to a major exhibition at the Library of Congress on the American cowboy (1983). Interviews with Italian ranchers in Nevada prompted the Center to undertake a further study of Italian settlement in the West as part of the Library's commemoration of the Columbian Quincentennary, and yet another exhibition and book were produced, Old Ties, New Attachments: Italian-American Folklife in the West (1992). Marshall's new book looks at "traditional buildings and landscapes, their builders and users, and material folk culture in context and in the framework of the dynamics of distinctive aesthetic systems and shared visions within the local community and the region." There are 129 photographs and 38 line drawings. _Paradise Valley, Nevada_ (ISBN 0-8165-1310-4) is available from The University of Arizona Press, 1230 N. Park Avenue, Suite 102, Tucson, AZ 85719, (800) 426-3797. The cloth edition is $55, plus $2 shipping for the first book, $1 for each additional book. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From Village to Stage to Archive: A Cornucopia of Romanian Folk Dance Documentation By Michelle Forner ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In the late 1940s, Gheorghe Popescu-Judetz was ready to pursue his dream. As an experienced folk dancer and ensemble leader, he had always been fascinated by the abundance of folk dances in his native Romania. So when he became director and choreographer of the government-sponsored Ciocirlia Ensemble in 1949, he was finally able to begin the work that remained his passion until his death in 1972: the compilation of a catalog and ethnographic description of all Romanian dances and variants. This research, which would result in a collection of several thousand notated folk dance variants, more than 3,200 tape-recorded melodies, and approximately 4,000 notated dance melodies, became the basis of the Gheorghe and Eugenia Popescu-Judetz Collection, now housed in the Archive of Folk Culture at the American Folklife Center. Gheorghe's wife Eugenia Popescu-Judetz, whose early career was also in dance, donated the collection to the Center in 1990 and 1995. It is considered the largest collection of primary documentation of Romanian folk dance and music in the United States. The materials span the years 1938 to 1974, with the largest portion from the period 1950 to 1972. The bulk of the collection consists of manuscripts, audio recordings, graphic materials, and moving images. Oral history interviews conducted with Eugenia at the Folklife Center in 1995 complement the original materials. Alan Jabbour, director of the American Folklife Center, calls the Popescu-Judetz Collection "a major ethnographic acquisition for the Library, which strengthens our holdings in both Romanian culture and the subject of dance. As a multi-format ethnographic collection, it exemplifies the central concern of the Center's Archive of Folk Culture for acquiring, preserving, and servicing such collections as unified wholes." The Popescu-Judetz Collection contains the accumulation of decades of Gheorghe's notes, research, and choreographic work, as well as examples of Eugenia's dance work and research. Although most of the collection materials focus on traditional Romanian folk dance and song, they also include musical arrangements, choreographic diagrams, photographs, and show programs documenting the activities of the Ciocirlia and Perinitza Ensembles. In addition, the collection includes theoretical research; ethnographic descriptions of costumes, rituals, and customs; and the unique dance notation system that the Popescu-Judetzes developed themselves. The vast majority of the materials in the collection are in Romanian. Gheorghe Popescu-Judetz was born in 1911 in the village of Beleti- Negrețti, Muscel district, in the Muntenia region of Romania. He became interested in folk dancing as a teenager and began performing as principal dancer with amateur ensembles in Bucharest. After obtaining degrees from several universities, Gheorghe entered the teaching profession. In the 1930s and 1940s he was leader of and dancer with a number of organizations and toured with some of them nationally and abroad. In 1948 Gheorghe married Eugenia Marisescu, who became his dance partner and research associate. They won first prize in the International Folk Dance Competition in Prague in 1950 for excellence in character dance performance. From 1949 to 1966 he was the choreographer and director of the Ciocirlia Ensemble. Throughout the years, the affable and energetic dance master also served as guest choreographer for other dance groups, professor of folk dance at various schools and seminars, and jury member at national folk arts competitions. With no formal ethnographic training but armed with enthusiasm and endless curiosity, Gheorghe conducted extensive fieldwork throughout Romania between 1949 and 1972, often accompanied by a fieldwork team that sometimes included Eugenia. He published some of his research in ten books on folk dance, as well as in many journal and magazine articles. As a leader in Romanian folk dance, Gheorghe received numerous artistic awards throughout his life; and in 1957 the Romanian government honored him with the title Artist Emeritus of Romania. Eugenia Popescu-Judetz was born in 1925 in Giurgiu, a town on the Danube River in the Muntenia region of Romania. Although she trained in classical ballet as a child, Eugenia developed an interest in folk dance that increased after she married. In her early career she was a professional dancer and folk-dance teacher with the National Theater Ballet of Bucharest, performed with the Opera Theater, and taught dance in the High School of the Arts and in the Folk Ensemble of Bucharest. For a time she conducted research with the Romanian Folk Lore Institute, an experience that gave her valuable training for future fieldwork. From 1954 to 1970 she was ballet master and choreographer of the Perinitza Folk Ensemble and toured internationally with them. Throughout these years, Judetzika ("Little Judetz," as she was affectionately called) taught workshops for folk-dance instructors and amateur choreographers, created many choreographies for film and television, conducted field research, and lectured in Europe. As part of a cultural exchange program, Eugenia traveled to the United States in the late 1960s to teach Romanian folk dance workshops. In 1973, she returned to the United States on an invitation from the Duquesne University Tamburitzans in Pittsburgh. She became an adjunct professor at Duquesne and continued to teach and choreograph for the Tamburitzans. Eager to extend her knowledge and interests, Eugenia received a master of arts degree in theology from Duquesne University and a doctorate in theater criticism from the University of Pittsburgh. She is the author of numerous articles and books and continues to pursue intellectual interests. The Romanian folk dance that was the focus of the Popescu-Judetzes' lives has its roots in custom and tradition and reflects daily life and work. Dances differ from region to region, and many variants of particular dances exist. Each village may have ten to fifty or more in its repertoire. Dances may be named for their type or place of origin, after girls' names or common occupations, or for elements of nature. There are dances performed by men only, by women only, or by men and women together, either in groups, couples, or solo. Functions range from ceremonial and ritual to theatrical and social. Form, structure, pattern, and rhythm determine the principal dance types, such as the hora, a group dance performed in a moving circle with joined hands; briul, a men's dance performed in a semicircle or line with hands holding belts; and invirtita, a couple dance performed with turning, syncopated steps. The dancers' calls and shouts, the geometric patterning of body movements, formations, and rhythms, and the unique regional repertoires define the folk dances as distinctly Romanian. In this century, industrialization and the changing political climate in Romania has threatened the continuation of dance and other folk traditions. Yet folk dancing continues to be a national pastime, enjoyed by most people at regular gatherings and performed by amateur and professional folk dance groups at festivals and competitions. It is also perpetuated outside Romania by folk dance aficionados around the world. It was to capture these dances that Gheorghe took to the field. The Popescu-Judetzes recognized that the traditional ways of life were changing, and Gheorghe wanted to record the endangered dance culture. In addition, the couple wanted to use the material to develop curricula for dance workshops, to provide methods to teach folk dance characteristics in ballet classes, and to publish dance instruction books. For more than two decades, Gheorghe spent about one-third of his time traveling to various provinces looking for folk dances and new variants. Sometimes the government sponsored the trips so that the choreographer could gather traditional material from which to create performance suites for Ciocirlia. When local or regional amateur groups hired Gheorghe to choreograph certain pieces, such jobs allowed him to explore the dances of that area. On other occasions he set out on his own, perhaps as part of a trip to judge a national competition or to attend a folk festival. Wherever Gheorghe went, he was watchful, constantly questioning dancers and musicians, forever jotting observations in one of the forty-five notebooks that contain his fieldnotes. Eugenia accompanied him part of the time and did her share of notating, describing, and interviewing. When funding permitted, research was conducted by a fieldwork team that usually included a musician/composer who notated the melody played with the dance under study, either on the spot or later by listening to a field recording; a costume expert who studied the traditional dancewear, often locked away in trunks in the villagers' homes; and, sometimes, performers with Ciocirlia who absorbed the authentic flavor of the dances. If the team went to a village well-known for its dancing, the local authorities usually organized a get-together for them in the evening after the workday. Young and old, the villagers gathered, at first a bit wary of the meeting. The Popescu-Judetzes supplied alcohol to help create a sociable atmosphere, and in a short time the people relaxed and began to dance and answer questions. Often, especially in the early years of fieldwork, the older peasants were reluctant to share their dances and songs for fear that their culture was being stolen. However, the fieldworkers' expertise and Gheorghe's genuine interest enabled them to develop a productive rapport with their informants. Moreover, as Gheorghe's fame as a national dance leader grew, musicians and dancers became eager to help with his research. Whether attending these constructed events or observing local celebrations, the fieldwork trips were times of cautious treasure hunting, particularly in the 1950s. During these early years, the researchers traveled by car (if they were lucky) but more often by train, cart, or on foot from village to village. At times they did not know what delightful discovery awaited them at the next site. Or what danger. Both local officials and peasants sometimes were suspicious of this small band of artists, and did not always understand or believe their purpose. Fortunately, Gheorghe's reputation and diplomatic skills helped to protect their lives and work. This constant fieldwork yielded the materials that serve as the foundation of the Popescu-Judetz Collection. In addition to the record of dance and music, other aspects of the collection are also significant, such as the documentation of the development of the dance-notation system. Gheorghe created the unique notation out of his need to record dances in the field accurately and quickly. From 1949 to 1955 he worked on a system that focused on footwork, including the positions and movements of the passive (non-weight- bearing) foot. Gheorghe continued to refine the system and used it in choreography for the ensemble, published books, and teaching. Eugenia employed the notation for the same purposes and drew on it when teaching and choreographing Romanian folk dance in the United States. The collection contains other valuable gems. "Nunta la Beleți," a twenty-six-page, handwritten manuscript, describes a wedding ritual in Beleți village, Muscel district (Gheorghe's birthplace), as it was performed between 1900 and 1940. Gheorghe formally researched this event between 1960 and 1964. The ethnographic document includes descriptions of the participants, costuming, orations, dances, music lyrics, and explanations of the rituals involved. "Mic Dictionar al Jocurilor Populare din Zonele Folclorice Neamt si Bacau" (Small Dictionary of Folk Dances from Neamt in Bacau District) is a four hundred and twenty-one-page handwritten manuscript Gheorghe wrote as part of a larger, unpublished ethnographic study on the folk arts of the Bicaz-Neamt area, Moldavia, sponsored by the Romanian Academy for Science and Letters. Based on research he conducted for seventeen years, it contains an alphabetically arranged description of almost eight hundred dance variants from the area, including types of dance, postures, places, dance name synonyms, accompanying lyrics or chants, and so forth. Detailed graphs, maps, and indexes accompany the chapter. This information is especially significant because part of the area was flooded in the late 1950s to make a dam, dispersing twenty-two communities along with their cultural heritage. The processing of this remarkable collection was part of the Dance Heritage Coalition Access Project currently underway at the Library of Congress and six other institutions across the country. The coalition, a consortium of performing arts libraries and representatives of the dance community, is coordinating a wide- ranging national effort to better preserve and make accessible the historic record of dance in America. The two-year project is primarily funded by a $663,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, with matching funds provided by the Delmas and Wilson Foundations. Archivists at the participating institutions, which include (among others) the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and the San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum, are arranging, describing, preserving, and cataloging significant collections that together document a broad spectrum of dance. The catalog records are being loaded onto the national on-line catalogs, OCLC and RLIN. In addition, finding aids for the collections are being made available on the internet through the Library of Congress's gopher, LCMARVEL. At the American Folklife Center, the Access Project has enabled me to process and describe a number of collections that document the dances of cultures and ethnic groups from around the world and across the nation. Among them: the Fahnestock South Sea Collection that contains sound recordings and film footage documenting Balinese dance from 1941; The Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project and Chicago Ethnic Arts Project collections, both fieldwork projects undertaken by the Center in the late 1970s that document dance in America ranging from square dancing to polka parties. Other collections contain materials on the music and dance of Alaskan Tlingits, Jamaican Maroons, and Moroccan Berbers. Of particular note is the Discoteca Publica Municipal de Sțo Paulo Collection, a group of sound recordings, film footage, and photographs made in 1938 that represents one of the first ethnographic compilations of music, dance, and ritual from northeast Brazil. Vicky Wulff, project director at the Library, notes that having a dance specialist work on these collections has proven valuable. "In terms of the Popescu-Judetz Collection, we were able to determine that it was much richer in dance materials than originally thought. Michelle's processing of the original gift provided an impetus to the donor to forward additional documentation that focused on dance." Through the efforts of the Dance Heritage Coalition Access Project in repositories that include the Archive of Folk Culture, the work of collectors and dancers such as the Popescu-Judetzes is preserved and made available to researchers in a field with a history of limited access and resources. Thus the results of Gheorghe's life-long passion will benefit future dancers and scholars, and help perpetuate the dance that he and Eugenia loved. References Popescu-Judetz, Eugenia. _Sixty Folk Dances of Romania_. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Tamburitzans, Institute of Folk Arts, 1979, pp. 1-9. Popescu-Judetz, Eugenia and James Roncovic, ed. _Judetz Folk Dance Notation_. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Tamburitzans, Institute of Folk Arts, 1979. Eugenia Popescu-Judetz, interview by Michelle Forner, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., March 28-30, 1995. A more detailed description of the Popescu-Judetz Collection can be found in the guide to the collection, available in the Folklife Reading Room or on Internet through LCMARVEL. From the main menu, select "Research and Reference," and then "Dance Heritage Coalition." ................................................................. Michelle Forner is a dance archivist for the Dance Heritage Coalition Access Project. She has been processing dance collection material at the American Folklife Center. ................................................................. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Significant Acquisitions for the Archive of Folk Culture in Fiscal Year 1995 By Joseph C. Hickerson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following describes collections acquired for the Archive of Folk Culture from October 1994 to September 1995 that comprise especially large bodies of material, are of particular interest to folklore, ethnomusicology, and related areas of study, and exemplify the wide variety of formats and subject matters represented in the Archive. I hope readers will be inspired by these diverse listings to consider the Archive of Folk Culture as a repository for their past, current, and future collections and publications. Potential donors may request a copy of _Ethnographic Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture: A Contributor's Guide_ from the American Folklife Center. Vida Chenoweth, professor emerita of music at Wheaton College, has donated the initial portion of her large collection of audio and visual recordings, manuscripts, and photographs representing musical traditions from a variety of cultures around the world. The present portion comprises 56 audiotapes, 5 audiocassettes, 111 manuscript cards and sheets, and 3 photographs that document the music of the Usarufa people of the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. Also included is one diskette containing 80 pages of tape logs and textual transcriptions. The field research was done in 1966-72 under the auspices of the Summer Institute of Linguistics; final research was carried out in 1973 with funding from the University of Auckland Research Committee. The materials formed the basis of Chenoweth's doctoral dissertation at the University of Auckland, the first half of which was published as _The Usarufas and Their Music_ (Dallas: SIL Museum of Anthropology, 1979), and wherein is stated that "special emphasis is laid on the new approach to melodic analysis" (p. xix). Featured in the collection are songs of daily life and rites of passage, dream songs, kinship songs, male cult songs, and two events known as "sing-sings." Henrietta Yurchenco, professor emerita at the City College of New York, has donated a multi-format ethnographic collection that she and her students made in John's Island, South Carolina, in 1970-71. Yurchenco intended the collection as both a musical and social document of this African American Gullah-speaking community. She states in an introduction to the collection: "Of particular interest were the role of the church in community life and the changes that had occurred since the early 1960's at the beginning of the civil rights' struggle." Included are audio-recordings containing church services, featuring hymns and sermons; children's games and play-parties; spirituals; blues; and a round-table discussion on current problems by a local minister, community members, and the City College students who accompanied Yurchenco on the project. Textual material includes an introduction to the collection; a description of the Hunter family, which provided much of the music and childrens' games; descriptions of the games, with lyrics to the accompanying songs; and a transcript of the discussion. In all, the collection comprises 18 audiotapes, 3 audio cassettes, 20 pages of text, and 6 pages of notes. Eugenia Popescu-Judetz of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has recently added a variety of materials to her and her husband's multi-format collection of Romanian folk dance and music in the Folk Archive. The latest contribution includes 5,325 manuscripts (primarily dance notation and related field notes), 1,731 index cards, 21 LPs, 6 45s, 71 photoprints, 22 show programs, 17 clippings, 3 maps, 13 books, and a bound manuscript of 142 pages containing an index to approximately 4,000 folk dances. On March 29-31, Ms. Popescu-Judetz visited the Center, where she was interviewed by Michelle Forner (see Forner's article on the Popescu-Judetz collection in this issue of _Folklife Center News_). Shirley R. Porter, president of The Laura Boulton Foundation, of East Moriches, New York, has donated 70 seven-inch audiotapes comprising portions of Boulton's Byzantine and "Rainess" collections. Laura Boulton participated in over twenty expeditions in her efforts to document the music of various cultures on five continents, chiefly during the 1930s-60s. In 1973, Columbia University donated her collection of 1,312 disc and 367 tape recordings to the Folk Archive, and, in 1991, the Boulton Foundation donated an additional 239 tapes. The new gift supplements these two collections. The Byzantine portion consists of 49 neo-Byzantine and Orthodox Christian liturgical music recorded at cathedrals and monasteries in Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey in 1960-62. The "Rainess" collection (21 tapes) was recorded in Japan in 1969. Stephen Lee Taller of Berkeley, California, has donated 7 audiotapes that were originally a part of the personal collection of Ben Shahn, noted artist and photographer, and were given to Taller by Shahn's widow, Bernarda Bryson. Much of the collection focuses on the work of Tony Schwartz, a self-described "recorder of sound" from New York City. Two of the tapes bearing his name are part of a series "Adventures in Sound"; a third entitled "About New York--A City of Sound" features recordings of a fire, street sounds, interviews, music, and several "voice experiments." Also among the tapes is a version of the song "Who Killed Davy Moore?" which was composed in 1963 by Bob Dylan; it is performed by Pete Seeger along with crowd noises and comments from a boxing match, presumably edited in by Schwartz. Two audiocassettes of five interviews with Peggy Seeger, produced for BBC Radio 2, have been presented by Josh Dunson of Real People's Music. These interviews were conducted June-July 1994 by Jim Lloyd and contain two and a half hours of songs, reminiscences, and performance philosophy which illuminate Seeger's formative role in the American and British folk revivals. Topics include growing up in a musical household; memories of Elizabeth Cotten; the McCarthy era; adolescent performing efforts; early days in Europe; courtship and marriage with Ewan MacColl; the Moscow Youth Festival and trip to China; collaborating on the BBC Radio Ballads; the Critics Group; politics and the craft of song writing; and The Singer's Club. Ilze Akerbergs of Randallstown, Maryland, has donated an audiocassette of Latvian folksongs entitled _Turku Pupa_, performed by the group Vilcțjas, along with lyrics in Latvian and explanatory notes in English. The songs come from various regions of Latvia and include songs for work and dance as well as lullabies and children's songs. Jozef A. Topolski of Waldorf, Maryland, has donated an audiocassette containing his 1989 interview with Polish-American bandleader Frank Wojnarowski of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Wojnarowski, who recorded for Dana Records and was elected to the Polka Hall of Fame in 1970, discusses local performing and the recording environment during the Depression and later, "Eastern" and "Western" styles of polka music, and the introduction of polka rhythms to ballroom dancing. Andriy Milavsky of New York City has donated an audiocassette of the Cheres Ukrainian Instrumental Ensemble, which consists of three graduates of the Kyiv Conservatory of Music. The aim of the ensemble is to keep alive the music of the Ukrainian people, especially troyista muzyka, the music prevalent in the Carpathian Mountains. The cassette includes 7 instrumental selections and 3 songs. Itzac David of Tel Aviv, Israel, has donated a videotape of performances by "Islamei," a Circassian (Adygei) dance ensemble from the Republic of Georgia. This professional group presents several song-and-dance compositions accompanied by poetry, as well as traditional Cherkez dances and songs, including dances with knives. Harlan E. Bogie of Homewood, Illinois, has donated a wire recording of music performed by his grandfather, Clare Alexander Bogie, a bandleader, composer, award-winning fiddler, and pianist from Pontiac, Michigan. The recording, made in 1951, features Clare Bogie and others performing instrumentals, as well as gospel, Irish, and popular songs. John Moyer of Michigan City, Indiana, has contributed 6 78-rpm pressings of Assam tribal music which were published by the Department of Anthropology of the Indian Museum in Calcutta. Robert A. Black of the University of California at Berkeley has donated 28 issues of _Promenade_, the magazine of the American Square Dance Group of New York City. The issues span the years 1945 through 1953. Organized in 1939 by Margot Mayo, the group was the first folk music revival organization in the United States; its magazine, _Promenade_, was the earliest folk revival periodical (the first number was issued in early 1940). The author of this article is beholden to a number of individuals who assist in a variety of acquisitions-related tasks as interns and volunteers. I would like to acknowledge the following who have done so in the past year: Irene Barabasz, Seth Bruggeman, Sarah Cuff, Diane Cummins, Jennifer Davis, Angie Delcambre, John DeMetrick, Megan Dreger, Jennifer Eastman, Natalya Gasilina, Christopher Hancock, Rachel Howard, Snjezana Ivanoviț, Dale Johnson, Zara Johnston, Hubert King, Mary Lister, Debby McClatchy, Matthew McMillen, Charles McNamara, Jack Manischewitz, Karen Morris, Daria Nebesh, Vivy Niotis, Elizabeth Null, Emily Parsons, Patricia Rolston, Jeanne Roningen, Erin Roth, Elsa Sagasti, David Schott, Kenneth Schweitzer, Kathy Shambaugh, Toni Smart, James Spears, and Marie-Louise Walter. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ New Finding Aid Lists Tales of the Supernatural By Angie C. Delcambre, Joseph C. Hickerson, and Emily A. Parsons ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The American Folklife Center has recently conjured up a frightening new finding aid. This nineteen-page document is entitled _Tales of the Supernatural: A Selected List of Recordings Made in the United States and Placed in the Archive of Folk Culture_. The finding aid was compiled by Folk Archive interns Angie Delcambre, Peter Harrington, Kristin Kolb, Emily Parsons, Andrew Schmidt, and Richard Weber, and was edited by Joseph C. Hickerson. While the finding aid does not include every ghostly story located in the Archive, it does describe over 225 supernatural items contained in 33 collections of recordings made between 1930 and 1982. The main characters in the tales range from devils, ghosts, and witches to mischievous pranksters out to scare their friends (or enemies). Some stories serve as lessons on how to ward off evil spirits, or how to use voodoo to inflict suffering on an unknowing victim. Story titles include "Black Cat Voodoo," "How Uncle Wilts Was Churned up for the Devil," "The Woman Who Fed Her Husband a Human Leg Which She Dug up from a Cemetery," "Seeing the Floating Coffin," "The Legend of the Spook Light," "Gullah Ghost Story," "Hearing the Devil Groan," and "The Yankee and Marcum" (reproduced here). The finding aid includes tales of Anglo- and African-American origin from many regions of the United States. Most Southern states are represented, especially those in Appalachia. Northern states such as Vermont, New York, and Pennsylvania are also included. The Work Projects Administration, Library of Congress, Linguistic Atlas of New England, and other organizations sponsored many of the recording projects. Collectors represented include John A. and Alan Lomax, Herbert Halbert, Stetson Kennedy, Alta S. and Austin E. Fife, Duncan Emrich, Frank C. Brown, Mary Celestia Parler, George G. Carey, William Ferris, Alan Jabbour, Carl Fleischhauer, Frank and Anne Warner, Kenneth S. Goldstein, Patrick B. Mullen, and Richard M. Dorson. Also listed is a Center-sponsored lecture on Halloween by Jack Santino. _Tales of the Supernatural: A Selected List of Recordings_ is number 13 in the series of "Library of Congress Folk Archive Finding Aids" (ISSN 0736-4903), which describes relevant portions of the Archive's unpublished, multi-format, ethnographic collections. Other recent finding aids describe the Archive's holdings for Alaska, boatbuilding, Brazil, Robert Winslow Gordon, Zora Neale Hurston, Kentucky, Mexico, Puerto Rico, radio broadcasts and projects, South Asia, South Carolina, and World War II. These finding aids, as well as a complete list of more than two-hundred finding and reference aids, are free and available upon request. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Yankee and Marcum A Story narrated by Burl Hammons ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ................................................................... In the early 1970s, Alan Jabbour, then head of the Library's Archive of Folk Song, along with Carl Fleischhauer, made a study of the traditions of the Hammons family in West Virginia. They recorded many songs and stories, including "The Yankee and Marcum," narrated by Burl Hammons on April 24, 1972. The story was published in THE HAMMONS FAMILY: A STUDY OF A WEST VIRGINIA FAMILY'S TRADITIONS, Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1973 (AFS L65- 66, box set of two LP records and accompanying booklet. "The Yankee and Marcum" has been edited here to facilitate readability. ................................................................. They was . . . a feller by the name of Marcum, and they was a Yankee . . . they didn't know where he'd come from. . . . This [Yankee] feller got talking about building a mill, you know, a grist mill, and he told [Marcum] he could build one. And [Marcum] got this stranger to build his mill for him; he told him he'd just hire him to build the mill for him. And [the stranger] went to work at the mill. And it kindly got scarce directly, meat; you know, they killed the bigger part of their meat. So, this feller, he said to Marcum, "Why don't you get out and kill us a deer?" "Well," Marcum said, "that's kindy hard, but probably I can kill one." And Marcum went out and hunted that day and he never killed nary none. "Why," [the feller] said, "if you've seen any sign, I can kill a deer." "Well," [Marcum] said, "they're plenty of sign . . . I just didn't happen to see 'ary one." And [the feller] said, "Well, I'll go with you in the morning." And they took out, and they didn't go but a little piece till here'd went a deer. And [the feller] looked [at] the track, and he said, "Now that deer's a long ways from here. But I think we can kill it." "Oh," Marcum said, "it ain't no use to track that deer, just no telling how far it is. . . ." "Well," [the feller] said, "I believe we can kill it." And he told Marcum, the Yankee did, he said, "Just get up there and sit down." "Oh," Marcum said, "it ain't no use to set here. No telling where that deer is, they ain't no use to set here." . . . And [the feller] said, "Sit down there." And Marcum just sat down, just setting there. And [the feller] got right down over the track, and he said, "Don't you speak." And Marcum just set there a little while. He said he thought that was one of the biggest, craziest men setting there over that deer track. And he said he set there right smart while. After a while he heard something a-coming the way the deer'd went. . . . And he saw that deer a-coming, it was just a-coming, and its hair was all buzzed up, and its tongue was out of its mouth that far, just like it had run to death. And he just set there, and the deer just come up in about twenty steps to him, and he said, "Well all right now, kill it." And [Marcum] just took the gun and killed it. "Now," [the feller] said, "I can't eat a bite of that deer myself, you can eat all you want. I won't eat a bite of it." "Well," [Marcum] said, "I don't know why." "Well," [the feller] said, "I won't. But that deer's just as good as any deer." "Well," [Marcum] said, "now I'll tell you one thing. If you'll tell me how you done that, I'll just give you anything that I ever seen"--I think he had two or three cows that he said he'd give him, a cow or something--"just give you anything if you just tell me." "Now," [the feller] said, "it ain't no use to tell me. I don't want n' anything. But, it wouldn't be no use for me to tell you, because you wouldn't do it if I'd tell you. . . . Besides, if I'd tell you," [the feller] said, "you'd aim to kill me, and that you'll not do; I can tell you before it." . . . Then [Marcum] just kept on. "All right," [the feller] said, "I'll tell you. You go up on that high mountain, and when you see the sun a-getting up of morn, just as it's hit the hill, you shoot at that sunball, nine mornings. And the ninth morning there'll be a drop of blood on your gun barrel. And you take a piece of paper, and cut a little place on your arm, and write on it how long you want to be sold to the devil, and give it to him when he comes to get it." "All right," [Marcum] said, he'd do that. And he'd go ever morning up there, and the ninth morning, when he shot that time, he looked onto the gun barrel, and there was a drop of blood. And he just cut a little place on his arm and writ, I think it was a year he wanted. And the gun never quit roaring; the gun never quit roaring, it just kept on roaring, the longer the worse, and the longer the worse, and after a while the whole earth just seemed like it got to jarring with him just up and down. And directly he looked a-coming through the treetops, and he said there come some kind of a thing that they was balls of fire coming out of its mouth. And he just dropped and away he went to the house and told 'em what he'd seen and all about this. He told them all about it, and he said, "I'm a-going down to kill the Yankee just as quick as I can go down. Man telling me such stuff as that, I'm a-going down to kill him." They tried to beg him not to go. "Yes sir, I'm a-going down," he said, "to kill the Yankee." And he just took his gun and started down where he was a-working on the mill, and the Yankee seen him a-coming. He knowed just exactly what he'd done. "Well," [Marcum] said, "I've come to kill you." [The Yankee] said, "Just as I expected. But you ain't a--yet." And the Yankee just picked up his gun, and just took and shot him, and they said that he jumped up and just crowed like a rooster and just fell over dead. The Yankee just quit and they never did hear tell of him no more, he just quit right there and went right-on. They was no way they could get trace of him. They had no phones, they had no way to trace him. That was the last of him, never heared tell of him again. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ American Folklife Center Spins a New Web By Stephanie A. Hall ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The dream of archivists has always been to provide wide public access to unique or rare materials while at the same time protecting them from the destructive forces of time and human handling. Those purposes, not surprisingly, often come into conflict with each other. But modern technology is making it possible for archivists to realize this dream. Internet technology has long made public access to digital copies of archival materials, catalogs, and finding aids a possibility for the highly computer literate. But now World Wide Web software is making this access easy and comfortable for the average researcher. World Wide Web (or "Web") software, developed at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, CERN, in Switzerland, makes it possible to view text and images and listen to sound interactively through the Internet. Users can browse interrelated texts in a form called "hypertext." The software is called "the Web" because of this non-hierarchical interconnected display of texts and images. The user can move from one document to another with ease, usually by clicking a mouse button to select words in the text displayed on the screen in blue. This "intuitive" movement through a group of materials provides an information medium with great potential for research and education. The display of online images and hypertext is available to those with state-of-the-art personal computers with a Web-capable connection to the Internet, and equipped with software and hardware that facilitate browsing the Web, viewing images, and listening to sound files. Hypertexts without the images and sound are also available to those with more basic equipment. The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress opened its Web service to the public on April 25, 1995. The texts of free publications and information about Center services, events, and the collections in the Archive of Folk Culture are available through this service. The Folkline information service and connections to Internet resources related to ethnographic studies are also provided. The texts are illustrated with photos from the Archive, and a link to one sound sample from the Archive is included. This is only a small taste of what is to come. The WPA California Folk Music Project Collection is being prepared for World Wide Web distribution and there are plans for additional collections to be made available through this service. In addition to assisting archivists in realizing a dream, the World Wide Web also adds to the archivist's oldest nightmare. Legal issues related to rights and permissions for unpublished uncopyrighted materials have always been difficult to sort out. World Wide Web distribution provides these materials in a forum in which they are distributed throughout the world (as the name implies) and can be downloaded intact for use by anyone who wants them, often in highly reproducible digital form. The Library of Congress is distributing historic materials that are free of copyright or permissions issues, or where permissions can be obtained. In the case of the WPA California Folk Music Project Collection, the Center wrote to all the performers documented or their next of kin to request permission to distribute. In addition, the copyright status of the songs needed to be researched, and, in some cases, the copyright laws of the country of origin needed to be determined. We expect that most of the songs in the collection will be cleared for Internet distribution. But we discovered through this process that the new technology brings both new solutions and new problems. There are numerous legal and technical issues that must be explored to find the best means of distributing materials while, at the same time, maintaining appropriate respect for the rights of performers and creators. Although it is often said that the Web is the future of the Internet, many users still prefer services such as Gopher, which requires no special software or connections. For the present, many providers, including the American Folklife Center, continue to provide the more widely accessible Gopher service along with Web service. It is even possible to integrate the two services. The Center's Web service provides access to all of the documents on our LC MARVEL Gopher menus. Since many institutions have the equipment for Web access, those interested in seeing the Web in action may try their local university library for a demonstration. Those interested in setting it up themselves will find that there are a number of possible types of browsing software, both free and commercial, and there are several types of Web-capable connections to the Internet being marketed as well. In addition, computers are being marketed with hypertext-capable software and hardware in place. In the ever- changing world of Internet development it is often a good idea to ask several users the pros and cons of the available systems before purchasing equipment. Web services are being made available so quickly that it is difficult to keep track of all the new sites. There are a number of Web services of interest to folklorists, including the new Smithsonian Center for Folklife Programs pages, the "Digital Tradition" folksong database, the "Forth World Documentation Project" for the study of indigenous peoples, and EthnoForum's site for hypertext publications in ethnomusicology. All these and more are available via the Center's Web home page. Just scroll to the bottom and select "other resources in ethnographic studies." The Center's pages are available through the Library of Congress's LC Web service (URL=http://lcweb.loc.gov), under the Services and Publications menu. The direct URL is http://lcweb.loc.gov/folklife. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Folklife Center News, Fall 1995: Captions Cover: Eugenia Popescu-Judetz, Gheorghe Popescu-Judetz, and musicologist Constantin Arvinte in the Oltenia region of Romania, 1957. For Romanian dance researchers in the 1950s, fieldwork sometimes involved traveling by cart. (AFC 1990/022:P9) Photographer unknown Howard W. Marshall interviews rancher Joe Boggio for the Folklife Center's Paradise Valley [Nevada] Folklife Project, 1978. Marshall's new book focuses on the vernacular architecture of the region. (NV-8-26-19354-19) Photo by Carl Fleischhauer Ciocirlia Ensemble performing a Banat dance with stilts choreographed by Gheorghe Popescu-Judetz, possibly on a 1966 U.S. tour. (AFC 1990/022:P40) Photo by Edmund Hofer A young Gheorghe Popescu-Judetz posing for a portrait wearing a shepherd's costume. Cƒmpulung-Muscel, Romania, 1930s. (AFC 1990/022:P23) Photographer unknown Sometimes the Popescu-Judetzes asked their informants for old pictures showing costuming, which they would copy and return. Here Gheorghe Popescu-Judetz's caption indicates that this is a picture of Ion Albota, forty-six years old in 1952, with his first wife, from the village of Secusigiu in the Arad district. They are wearing the old costume of the Banat. (AFC 1990/022:P21) The trials of fieldwork in Romania in the 1960s: Gheorghe Popescu- Judetz (far right) with fieldwork team and others. The car got stuck in the road in the Banat region, 1966. (AFC 1990/022:P19) Photographer unknown A page showing a section of the dance notation score for "Purdelul de la Scornicesti," a dance from the Oltenia region of Romania recorded by Gheorghe Popescu-Judetz in 1970 using his notation system. This version of the notation was prepared for publication in a book. The "s" and "d" indicate foot positions; the corresponding music notation and lyrics are placed above. A page showing a section of the hand-written choreographic diagram for the staging of a suite based on dances from the Maramures district of Romania. Gheorghe Popescu-Judetz developed the dance in 1965 for the CiocŒrlia Ensemble; in this outline he shows the progressive movements and positions of male (triangle) and female (semi-circle) dancers. Eugenia Popescu-Judetz (left) reviews manuscript materials with dance archivist Michelle Forner, March 1995. Interviews with collectors assist in the accurate arrangement and description of ethnographic collections. Photo by James Hardin Ethnomusicologist Vida Chenoweth interviewing Taaqiyaa, her chief Kaagu Usarufa music and text contributor in Papua New Guinea, 1967. Chenoweth's recent donation of materials from her fieldwork among the Usarufa is the first of several ethnographic projects she will be donating over the ensuing years. Henrietta Yurchenco continues to enrich the collections of the Archive of Folk Culture, this time with a donation of audio- recordings, manuscripts, and photographs documenting the folklife of African-American Gullah-speakers in John's Island, South Carolina, in the early 1970s. Here she appears (right) with one of her informants in front of a Methodist church that served as a focus for some of the documentation. Photo by David Lewiston Burl Hammons in the kitchen of his West Virginia home, early 1970s. Photo by Carl Fleischhauer Folklife Center archivists Stephanie Hall (top) and Catherine Kerst view the Library of Congress Home Page on the World Wide Web. Photo by James Hardin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ People and Events An Evocation of Ancestors: On June 28, about twenty-five Russian Molokans who were participating in the Smithsonian's Festival of American Folklife visited the American Folklife Center. Center archivist Catherine Kerst gave them a presentation of Russian Molokan materials (including sound recordings, photographs, and fieldnotes) from the Sidney Robertson Cowell California Folk Music Project Collection (she is shown here with a photograph of the collector). Several visitors were the descendants of the Potrero Hill, San Francisco, congregation Sidney Cowell recorded in 1938. Photo by James Hardin Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart visited the American Folklife Center on June 23 for a tour of the collections. He continues to sponsor the Center's Endangered Music Project. Photo by James Hardin Ethnomusicologist Max Derrickson and anthropologist Ken Bilby listen to recordings from the Archive of Folk Culture in order to make selections for the next several releases in the Center's Endangered Music Project. Photo by James Hardin Romanian president Ion Iliescu reviews selections from the American Folklife Center's Popescu-Judetz Collection as dance archivist Michelle Forner explains the materials and Librarian of Congress James Billington (left) look on. Iliescu made a state visit to the Library in September 1995. Photo by Yusef El-Amin Two new members representing federal agencies attended the October meeting of the Center's Board of Trustees: Ada Deer, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, and Shirley Sagawa, Corporation for National and Community Service, are shown here with board members William Kinney (left), Robert Malir, and Alan Jabbour (right). Photo by David A. Taylor The Buenos Aires Connection presented traditional Argentine music and dance at the Center's October concert on the Library of Congress's Neptune Plaza. Rebecca Shulman and Jorge Udrisard demonstrated the tango. Photo by James Folk dancers from the 30th Dorobantzi Regiment from Muscel, Romania, 1941. The group, organized and led by Gheorghe Popescu- Judetz, poses in costume with local dance partners and musicians. Dance archivist Michelle Forner has been processing the American Folklife Center's Popescu-Judetz Collection for the Dance Heritage Coalition Access Project. Her article on the subject begins on page x. (AFC 1990/022:P27) Photographer unknown